Pa. tuition increases putting college out of reach

Sunday, July 21, 2013

A COMPROMISE deal on student loans that could hold down loan rates in the short term was expected to come to a vote next week, well before students returning to campus this fall have to sign their loan agreements, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Under the deal, undergraduates this fall could borrow at a 3.9 percent interest rate. Graduate students would have access to loans at 5.4 percent, and parents would be able to borrow at 6.4 percent. Those rates would climb as the economy improves and it becomes more expensive for the government to borrow money.

The compromise undoes the doubling of rates on some student loans that took hold on July 1, and one analysis of the Senate deal suggests incoming freshmen would save more than $3,300 in interest.

But that news fails to ease for students and their families the burden of college costs that continue to rise out of reach.

College expenses have become outrageously high over the past decade, fueled in part by the “easy money” of student loans and government financial aid. Schools haven’t had much incentive to rein in costs. And so tuition increases have far outpaced the rate of inflation.

Nowhere is the situation more noticeable than in Pennsylvania, where state colleges and universities are among the most expensive public schools of higher learning in the nation. Last week, Penn State officials were patting themselves on the back for in-state student tuition hikes of only 3.39 percent, touting that as the second-lowest rate increase since 1967.

That’s still about twice the current rate of inflation.

PENN STATE has the distinction of being the most expensive state school for in-state students in the nation. The total cost next year (including tuition, fees, and room and board) will be $26,362. Four years in State College will cost a student well over $100,000.

It’s hard to take PSU administrators too seriously when they boast about cost cutting and tightening the purse strings while OKing a tuition increase that still exceeds inflation. Penn State’s beleaguered parents and students really need to see those costs held flat or even reduced.

The situation in the state system schools (Millersville, Shippensburg, etc.) isn’t much better. Tuition is going up 3 percent for the coming academic year.

A special commission appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett last year recommended initiatives to make college more affordable and training more suited to workforce needs.

Among those were “performance scorecards” for postsecondary institutions that would take into account not only academic standards, but also controlling tuition costs and increasing access for lower income students.

The report adopted by the state Department of Education gives colleges the goal of “making every effort to increase affordability through tuition containment, identifying potential barriers and possible solutions for traditional, non-traditional, part-time and adult students,” making education accessible to all.

Colleges are clearly not embracing that goal. Tuition increases are not holding down costs or making college more accessible. IN FACT, Pennsylvania’s college costs are putting higher education out of reach for many.

Without a concerted effort to make college more affordable, higher education will become an advantage only the wealthy can afford.